'Rain, steam and speed'

JOSEPH MALLOR WILLIAM TURNER

1844
oil on canvas, 91- 112 cm. - London, National Gallery

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Turner is probably the best Western landscape painter of all time, and this supreme masterwork constitutes an almost impressionistic work. The picture is a sensational conclusion to Turner's investigations about the representation of light and atmospheric effects in painting, which were developed during his time as professor in the Royal Academy, where Turner learned Newton and Goethe's theories about light and colour. In this painting, the authentic protagonist, even ahead of the dynamical locomotive, is the changing English atmosphere, an effect increased by the steam caused by the powerful machinery. Many art critics -and later many impressionist painters- felt a deep fascination for this quick locomotive. When this painting was first exhibited in 1844, a critic wrote: “a train advances towards you, a train that really moves at 50 miles per hour, and that the reader would do well to see before it leaves the picture”

Text: G. Fernández, www.theartwolf.com

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